Hello Nicole, welcome. This is a great group of orchidholics. We enjoy sharing our orchid highs and lows. Glad you're joining in. Marci

Great pics, and I love to watch the little critters that visit the gardens! I spend hours contorting myself into strange positions to get pictures of the pollinators and other visitors. At first, the bees or butterflies seem skittish when I first appear, but after a few minutes, they seem to get used to this big human creature with a camera. They let me get very close sometimes. Here are a couple of the assorted bees that come to pollinate - Yesterday was very exciting, a female Monarch was alternating between nectaring and laying eggs on the Asclepias tuberosa and incarnata. Here she is nectaring - And here she is laying an egg - Can you spot the butterfly in this picture? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oh, here she is!

Welcome!!! I too, am new to SFG. Last year, I paid for someone to dig some beds out around the foundation of the house, figuring I would plant perennials. When all was said and done, because of my impending divorce, I didn't want to spend money on perennials and instead, threw cuc's, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and basil in the beds (if you haven't guessed yet, I am italian.) :-) They did so well and with that, I became addicted to gardening!!! This year, I am building four 8 x 4 beds in the yard. And will also use the beds around the foundation for more veggies. Why bother planting stuff on the sides of the house when I can grow something that we can eat??? It will fill in during the summer and nobody will see them in the winter. BUT, while my house may not be the nicest in the winter months, the impact my garden had on my neighborhood last summer was priceless. I am a newly single mom. I bought out my ex's equity in the house. As a single mom, owning a home is a little daunting. But my little garden helped me with that!!! Before having a garden, I didn't know my neighbors. Our houses are pretty far apart. Last summer, while bringing extra veggies to my next door neighbor, he introduced me to his next door neighbor. So I started leaving baggies of fresh veggies on his mailbox when I had extra. He in turn, introduced me to another neighbor and so on and so on etc. Now, a year later, we all know each other. And have since become friends. And knowing that I am a single mom with two little kids, they now look out for me. They have helped me tremendously. They help fix clogged drains. Taught me how to spackle. Told me to turn off water pipes going to the outside faucets in the fall. All the little things that you need to know when you own a home. They have even sent over the "construction" guys when they were doing home improvements to see if I needed help with anything. And sometimes, when I get up too late to bring the garbage to the curb, I find that someone else pulled it from the side of my garage and my garbage is taken out. Through my little garden and extra veggies that I gave away, I have gotten more help than I could ever hope from my ex!!! My intentions when giving away the veggies was simply that they wouldn't go to waste. I wasn't looking for anything in return and honestly felt that knowing and becoming friends with the neighbors was really nice. While I appreciate all of their help, nothing proved more important to me than last week. I was on the phone with a friend and happened to look out my kitchen window. And saw the mental, schizo, bipolar neighbor sitting at my outdoor table. In his boxers. And taking off his shirt. And it was 40 degrees out. I immediately called the cops. Then called my neighbor across the street and asked her if her husband could come over and stay with us until the cops came. He was here within one minute. I was comfortable knowing that a guy was in the house with us. But the wife called all of the other neighbors. Within five minutes later, I had 5 more people in my living room to stay with me. And another mom in the neighborhood took my five year old and three year old to her house while I waited for the police. The police came a few minutes later. I've never felt so threatened yet so safe at the same time. And it all stemmed from my few cucumber, tomato, eggplant, pepper and basil plants that produced too much!!!

Dear Polar Princess, I am happy to read of your recent survivorship and a getting new lease on life. I think your oak cabinets look very well made and can be a star with some new accessories. Oak is a timeless, beautiful wood. Here are the changes I would try for minimal cost: 1) As has been mentioned numerous times: remove the stenciling & ivy to freshen the look. 2) If you can easily remove the light bridge over the sink and add molding to the top of the 2 cabinets where it connected, that will also modernize the look, as previous poster suggested, for not much money. 3) Backsplash: Provide Maximum sizzle and splash, which will transform the kitchen with a shimmering glass tile mosaic. See link below as example. Your area is not big, so you could pull this off for only $200 to $250 in materials. 4) Definitely bring in the brown leather bar stools you like or even something very modern in style as a contrast. 5) Counter tops: white laminate is not necessarily bad. In fact, if you add a shimmering glass backsplash that is a nice counterpoint to the white counters, you may find they are now more pleasing to you, without going to the expense of adding granite. You already know how easy to maintain your laminate counters are. You might jazz them up with some interesting place mats or update your centerpiece to be more in keeping with the brown leather & mosaics. 6) Window valence: maybe replace the lace look with something more tailored to complement the new backsplash and stools. 7) Wall paint: See how the backsplash changes the look and decide if you want to add wall color or not. 8) If you still yearn for SS appliances, check into changing out the front panels of the frig and dishwasher with SS. Don't think that is possible with the stove. I would really keep the bisque because they will look nice with the new backsplash as well. The link is from a larger website with many different choices of mosaic color combinations. The featured one is Anima because I think it would complement your while/bisque and oak and brown leather. Also check out several of the Spectralight (with and without El Dorado), Shimmerfly (one is Honey Pearl)and others which might complement your adjacent room colors. Good luck with all your decisions. We celebrate that you are here to make them! Anna Lee F Here is a link that might be useful: Glass tile backsplash